Melanie von Trapp
The UK is alive with the sound of new music, as one of the current generation of the
legendary von Trapp family tells The American

I

t’s impossible to talk to a member
of the von Trapp family about their
new album, Dream A Little Dream
(reviewed below) without visions
of the movie that immortalised
their ancestors, The Sound of Music.
But please don’t confuse fact with
fiction - unlike the people who
have asked the present-day von
Trapps ‘Where are the other three, I
thought there were seven of you?’,
or ‘I thought you’d be much older!’.
The four young people now
performing under their famous
name are Americans, born in the
mountains of Montana, rather
than Austria. Their forbears did not
actually sing ‘Edelweiss’ or ‘Lonely
Goatherd,’ nor are they related to
Julie Andrews! In fact they are not
even directly related to the real-life
Maria. They are the great-grandchildren of Captain Georg von Trapp
and his British first wife, Agathe.
Incidentally, Agathe’s father, Robert
Whitehead, invented the torpedo.
Ironically, Captain von Trapp used
torpedoes on ‘the other side’ in
World War I as a U-boat captain.
Now named simply ‘The von
Trapps’, rather than ‘...Singers’ or ‘...
Children’, Melanie, Amanda, Sofi and
August have performed professionally together for over twelve years.
Could they have been computer
programmers, teachers, or astronauts, or were they always destined

28 May 2014

to be singers?
“Growing up, music was something
we did to pass the time, it was a
fun hobby for us together and with
Grandfather,” says Melanie. “Our
parents can’t sing a note, and my
father is so shy. It was a shock to
everybody when we started doing
this. August is the youngest, he
was about seven when we started.
Our mom is adventurous, and a big
supporter of having big experiences
and seeing the world, so she saw
it as an opportunity for a different
education. It was never a grand goal
to become famous, or have a glamorous career. It was just a bunch of
fun. The four of us got along so well
and we’ve had so many interesting
experiences on the road.”
They have, at least temporarily, forsaken their Montanan peaks
to head west, to a place that has
become a catalyst for creativity.
Melanie explains: “When we met
Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini,
he lured us to Portland, Oregon,
and we’ve never left. We’ve been
there a year and a half now - we live
together. It’s hipster central, for one
thing, the food is amazing, and the
coffee dominates the scene. And it’s
also extremely wet there, which I
think is a step up from the freezing
cold of Montana. It’s a lot of fun,
the people are different and crazy,
and it makes us feel more comfort-

able about creating our own music.
Thomas is the unofficial mayor of
Portland, and he’s introduced us to
so many different kinds of people.
Being under his mentorship has
been the wildest ride.”
Although a mentor, Lauderdale is not a Svengali molding
the foursome. “We were already
looking for a new direction for our
music, to grow out of being The
von Trapp Children,” Melanie says.
“We had been working on that for
two or three years, and when we
met Thomas he saw that. It would
have taken much less time if he’d
just told us what to sing and how
to perform, but it was more like a
friendship. He drew out of us what
we liked, and made it happen. Of
course we want to pay homage to
the family history and the legacy of
The Sound of Music, but it’s time to
come out with our own personalities. We never knew if we could do
that until meeting Thomas.”
As well as debuting a new von
Trapp sound - and trademark Pink
Martini treatments of songs in languages from Japanese to Hebrew there are also new von Trapp songs
on Dream A Little Dream.
“My brother August disappeared
for three days and came out with
the song ‘Storm,’” says Melanie. “He’d
written all four vocal parts. All of a
sudden he’d found this songwriting